School of War - Nebulous Media

Latest Episodes:

Ep 127: Robert Blackwill & Richard Fontaine on the Failed Pivot to Asia Jun 11, 2024

Show notes

Robert Blackwill & Richard Fontaine, authors of Lost Decade: The US Pivot to Asia and the Rise of Chinese Power, join the show to talk about America’s failed pivot to Asia and why they think it still needs to happen.

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Times

• 01:59 Introduction

• 03:10 Was the pivot serious?

• 07:40 Absent compulsion

• 13:25 War in Europe?

• 22:46 Changes to the plan

• 28:28 A bigger budget

• 32:23 Domestic resistance to TPP

• 38:25 The ultimate goal

• 44:36 Why not regime change in China?

• 51:08 Henry Kissinger

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Ep 126: Michel Paradis on D-Day and Eisenhower Jun 04, 2024

Show notes

Michel Paradis—litigator, national security law scholar, and author of The Light of Battle: Eisenhower, D-Day, and the Birth of the American Superpower—joins the show to talk about D-Day and the man behind the invasion, Dwight Eisenhower.

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Times

• 01:49 Introduction

• 01:56 “Wildly under appreciated”

• 05:17 Upbringing

• 11:40 Seeing the world as it is

• 15:01 Not that long ago

• 22:14 British vs American plans

• 32:50 Using strategic advantages

• 36:03 Designing D-Day

• 46:58 Planning for failure

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Ep 125: Nick Bunker on America and the Early Cold War May 28, 2024

Show notes

Nick Bunker, journalist and author of In the Shadow of Fear: America and the World in 1950, joins the show to talk about the first decade of the Cold War.

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Times

• 01:36 Introduction

• 02:26 Countdown to war

• 05:17 Biden and Truman

• 09:05 A failure of American policy?

• 13:09 Present at the Creation

• 21:16 Stalin’s view of the world

• 25:50 Stalin and China

• 30:44 Developing nuclear thinking

• 32:39 Robert Taft

• 38:01 No choice but to defend Korea

• 46:44 NSC-68

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Ep 124: Shane Brennan on Xenophon and Leadership May 21, 2024

Show notes

Shane Brennan, Associate Professor of History and Classics at the Asian University for Women in Bangladesh and author of Xenophon's Anabasis: A Socratic History, joins the show to talk about why the Anabasis remains an important part of the Western canon of military writing.

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Times

• 01:30 Introduction

• 02:05 Dubai to Bangladesh

• 05:37 Xenophon’s start

• 09:25 Several levels of failure

• 12:37 “An exemplary Socratic student”

• 14:40 Fighting for the Persians

• 17:18 Cyrus the Younger

• 20:46 A leader emerges

• 29:41 “How was he so right?”

• 36:43 Matterhorn

• 38:33 Exile

• 42:01 An instruction on leadership

• 44:16 “There is always something there…”

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Ep 123: Sergey Radchenko on Soviet Motivations in the Cold War May 14, 2024

Show notes

Sergey Radchenko, Wilson E. Schmidt Distinguished Professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and author of To Run the World: The Kremlin's Cold War Bid for Global Power, joins the show to talk about the strategic aims of the U.S.S.R. during the Cold War and how the Soviets attempted to run the world.

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Times

• 01:17 Introduction

• 02:32 A novel argument

• 08:36 Power and recognition

• 11:51 Who started the Cold War?

• 14:55 The American dilemma

• 17:09 Fukuyama

• 21:21 Nuclear guarantees

• 25:16 The shadow of WWII

• 29:44 Flippancy and boredom

• 32:06 Détente

• 32:12 Backstabbing

• 37:52 American lecturing

• 45:39 Sources of Soviet collapse

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Follow the link to buy the book - To Run the World: The Kremlin's Cold War Bid for Global Power

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Ep 122: Mike Gallagher and Matt Pottinger on a Victory Strategy for China May 07, 2024

Show notes

Mike Gallagher and Matt Pottinger join the show to discuss their recent Foreign Affairs essay on the need for a victory strategy in America’s cold war with China.

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Times

• 01:53 Introduction

• 03:25 Meeting in Iraq

• 07:43 “There are bad guys…”

• 13:15 Why detente isn’t working

• 23:45 Real statesmanship?

• 32:12 Rearm/Reduce/Recruit

• 35:20 TikTok

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Read the Foreign Affairs piece here No Substitute for Victory America’s Competition With China Must Be Won, Not Managed

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Ep 121: Andy Lowery on Drones and Directed Energy Apr 30, 2024

Show notes

Andy Lowery, CEO of EPIRUS and a retired U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander, joins the show to talk about directed energy weapons on the modern battlefield.

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Times

• 01:45 Introduction

• 02:02 Before EPIRUS

• 06:29 Drones on the battlefield

• 13:30 Current countermeasures

• 19:40 An answer for autonomy

• 21:32 How does it all work?

• 29:54 Beam specs

• 33:45 Sci-fi but familiar

• 38:11 Gallium nitride

• 40:31 Cat and mouse game

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Ep 120: Iskander Rehman on the Emperor Tiberius and American Primacy Apr 23, 2024

Show notes

Iskander Rehman, Ax:son Johnson Fellow at the Johns Hopkins SAIS Kissinger Center and author of Iron Imperator: Roman Grand Strategy Under Tiberius, joins the show to talk about the military career and statecraft of Tiberius and what his career has to teach us today.

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Times

• 02:32 Introduction

• 03:29 The Pentagon and Rome

• 07:29 Why Tiberius?

• 15:04 Parallels

• 18:26 Germania

• 22:38 Roman criticism

• 28:03 Auxiliaries and proxies

• 32:09 Diplomacy and a recruitment crisis

• 34:00 A brilliant military career

• 37:17 Force structure

• 41:18 Parthian Cold War

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Ep 119: Yaroslav Trofimov on the War in Ukraine Apr 16, 2024

Show notes

Yaroslav Trofimov, chief foreign-affairs correspondent at The Wall Street Journal and author of Our Enemies Will Vanish: The Russian Invasion and Ukraine's War of Independence, joins the show to talk about the early days of Russia’s war in Ukraine, how the battlefield has evolved, and where the war may be headed.

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Times

• 01:48 Introduction

• 02:06 Growing up Ukranian

• 05:03 The collapse of Kabul

• 07:40 Leadership counts

• 10:14 Zelensky

• 16:20 How did Putin get Ukraine so wrong?

• 19:49 Touch and go

• 22:45 Draft confusion

• 26:09 Battlefield evolution

• 30:42 Countermeasures

• 34:33 Washington’s tepid support

• 38:11 Possible futures

• 40:26 Trump

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Find a transcript of today’s episode on our School of War Substack

Buy the book here - Our Enemies Will Vanish: The Russian Invasion and Ukraine's War of Independence

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Ep 118: Michael Doran on Is Hamas Winning? Apr 09, 2024

Show notes

Michael Doran, Senior Fellow and Director of the Center for Peace and Security in the Middle East at the Hudson Institute and co-host of the podcast Counterbalance, joins the show to talk about the Israel-Hamas war and the broader regional competition with Iran.

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Times

• 02:04 Introduction

• 04:01 Is Hamas winning?

• 10:29 Fighting the clocks

• 13:10 Defeat from the jaws of victory

• 18:24 An Iranian-American conflict

• 22:44 Managing decline

• 26:40 Lessons not learned

• 33:00 The Iranian nuclear umbrella

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Find a transcript of today’s episode on our School of War Substack